Travel Planning: Top Tips For Planning a Trip To Australia

2018 is the year I planned to do more long distance destinations. It hasn’t quite worked out that way as annual leave can only go so far but I do have a trip to Mexico booked for September. However, there are a couple of long distance trips still on my bucket list and right now, Australia and New Zealand are right at the top.

A long distance trip involves a little more planning than my usual “book it now, research later” style. I was recently tempted by some bargain sale flights to Australia but I definitely hadn’t done enough planning to take the plunge. Therefore, I’ve started to plan my long distance adventures, with the plan to visit Down Under as well as Japan in 2019, and I thought I’d share some tips!

Trust Your Friends

Despite the distance, everyone seems to know someone who has been to Australia and there’s nothing like word of mouth recommendations. As soon as I mention Australia, I get a new recommendation of somewhere to go or something to do. Jaye Rockett is currently exploring Australia for 6 weeks and I’ve been saving all of her blog posts and Instagram photos to help me plan my adventures. Those local, personal recommendations by friends and bloggers are always the best!

Get Organised

When I book flights around Europe, I often grab a last minute deal but it’s a little bit different when you’re looking at Australia. The lowest fares are available when you book five months in advance, rather than the more standard two months, so get organised now and plan when you want you travel to Australia so you can book ahead.

Take A Stopover

When I was investigating travelling to Australia and New Zealand, a travel agent suggested to me that I take a few days at my stopover destination to explore that too. The most popular are Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Hong Kong but personally I love the idea of stopping over in Beijing and squeezing in a visit to the Great Wall of China. After all, if you’re travelling that far, you might as well visit another country too!

Think Outside The Box

Whilst researching cheap flights, I’ve discovered that it’s worth including internal flights in your hunt for a bargain. It can often be cheaper to fly to, say, Melbourne and then look at local internal flights to Sydney, rather than fly direct to Sydney. It takes longer than flying direct but it’s a great way to see multiple cities as well as save some pennies and a flight can take less than an hour and a half, compared to a 9 hour drive. This trick works both ways - flights from Edinburgh are the cheapest UK departure so don’t forget to look at the price to travel up to Scotland and fly from there too!

Is Australia on your bucket list? What are your top tips for a trip to Australia? I’d love to read any tips or posts you might have!

This is a sponsored post in collaboration with Flight Centre

Brits Abroad: Tips For Visiting Australia from the UK courtesy of Flight Centre